Configuration

Import defineConfig from electron-vite-plus so a single vite.config.ts can describe both the renderer's standard Vite behavior and Electron's build targets.

import { defineConfig } from "electron-vite-plus";

export default defineConfig({
  electron: {
    main: {},
    preload: {},
    renderer: {},
    outDir: "out",
  },
});

The helper accepts an object, a promise, or a configuration function with the usual Vite ConfigEnv argument.

electron.outDir

Base output directory for all targets. Defaults to out.

electron: {
  outDir: "artifacts",
}

This produces artifacts/main, artifacts/preload, and artifacts/renderer.

The CLI --out-dir option overrides the configured value for one invocation.

electron.main

Configures the Electron main process. It accepts the shared process options plus standard Vite user configuration.

Option	Type	Behavior
entry	string | Record<string, string>	Entry file or a named entry map. Defaults to discovering src/main/index.*.
format	"es" | "cjs"	Output module format. Defaults from the application's package.json type.
externalize	boolean | ExternalizeOptions	Externalize application dependencies. Defaults to true.

Named entries

electron: {
  main: {
    entry: {
      index: "src/main/index.ts",
      worker: "src/main/worker.ts",
    },
  },
}

Dependency handling

electron: {
  main: {
    externalize: {
      include: ["package-kept-at-runtime"],
      exclude: ["package-bundled-into-main"],
    },
  },
}

Setting externalize: false bundles application dependencies where possible, but still leaves Electron and Node built-ins external.

electron.preload

Uses the same options as electron.main. Its discovered entry is src/preload/index.*, and its format defaults to CommonJS for compatibility with Electron preload loading.

electron: {
  preload: {
    entry: "src/preload/index.ts",
    format: "cjs",
  },
}

CommonJS preload entry files are emitted with a .cjs extension.

electron.renderer

Accepts standard Vite user configuration. root defaults to the top-level Vite root or src/renderer.

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [frameworkPlugin()],
  electron: {
    renderer: {
      root: "src/renderer",
      build: {
        sourcemap: true,
      },
    },
  },
});

Top-level Vite configuration is inherited by the renderer. Vite+ task namespaces such as lint, fmt, check, pack, run, and test are excluded before the renderer configuration is passed to Vite.

Disable a target

Set a target to false when an application does not need it:

electron: {
  main: { entry: "src/main/index.ts" },
  preload: false,
  renderer: { root: "src/renderer" },
}

The dev command requires both main and renderer targets. Preload is optional. Production builds skip any target set to false.

Modes and config files

Use standard CLI switches to select another mode or configuration file:

electron-vite-plus build --mode staging
electron-vite-plus build --config vite.desktop.config.ts

The default mode is development for dev and production for build and preview.